Be in Love With Your Reflection

Over last couple of years I found myself feeling very unhappy with the way my body looked. I wouldn’t say I’m overweight, but I hated how my thighs touch and how I have a little podge pouch on my tummy. No-one was telling me these things (I have an amazing boyfriend who always makes me feel good) but I just couldn’t help it. Every week I’d say to myself “I’ll start being healthy after this one last treat”. Nothing ever materialised. Until Christmas 2013. I had had enough! Why should I avoid looking at myself in the mirror? I can do something about it if I put my mind to it! So, because it was Christmas I decided that I would eat whatever I liked, and not feel guilty, because come January I was going to change. I wanted to be happier and healthier.

You know, eating whatever I liked, guilt free, was one of the best decisions I made. I got so fed up with all the junk food that I started to crave something healthy.

So here I am 3 weeks after New Year, feeling AMAZING! I never would have guessed how much your diet affects your mood, your health and your general outlook on life! I have so much energy, my mood is elevated and I have new lease of life that is motivating me to be a better version of myself.

Eating healthily and exercising just go hand in hand. The food makes you want to exercise, you want to put the fuel to good use! Once you start being more active you really can’t stop. It’s completely true that exercising makes you feel happier and even makes you sleep better. I’ve always been a fairly active person, I enjoy competitive sport. Running and exercise, not so much. I’ve never seen the appeal, I always thought I’d get bored and I hated being out of breath. So I took some Zumba classes and started playing for a Handball team, I already went Fencing (sword fighting) but I had gotten out of the habit of going, so I started to go again more regularly. I also started Swimming. I find that swimming is a really good indicator of how much fitter you are getting. In 3 weeks I have gone from swimming 30 lengths in one session to 64! (64 lengths is a mile)

So anyway, at the beginning of this thing I set out to lose some weight and look better. But what has actually happened is that I feel really happy and good about myself, so I don’t care about all the imperfections I see in the mirror! Granted I have lost some weight, and toned up a bit (which will continue to happen). But that’s just a bonus! Your body is amazing, and it can do some powerful things if you treat it right! By all means have a ‘cheat meal’ every once in a while or have a few drinks with your friends, your body will forgive you and replenish itself, but try to be nice to it most of the time ;-).

My name is Xanthe, I am 22 and in my final year of university studying Biomedical Sciences. I have started this blog to help inspire people to make healthy choices and I have a few recipes up my sleeve that I would like to share. I wouldn’t have made this blog if it wasn’t for Instagram. There is an amazing Instagram community who share healthy recipes and encourage each other to be healthy. It’s lovely. We call it ‘Fitfam’. So look me up on there if you wish @whataboutsindy.